Yoga at Home

In my adult life, since turning 20, I have moved 12 times. Sometimes within the same city, sometimes across an ocean — new languages, cultures, food, subcultures, etiquette, new wonders and worries.

Through all of it, my yoga mat, rolled out wherever I landed, has been a kind of home. A place where I — my body, my mind, my soul — could find ground.

There is so much power in knowing that. That wherever I am, if I can roll out my mat, there is somewhere familiar to return to.

But there is also something powerful about returning, over decades, to the same place to practice.

Maybe it is a retreat location you return to with a beloved teacher. Or, in this case, my mother’s home.

I arrive at my mom’s house in Karkur, Israel, ask where my purple yoga mat is, and begin.

And every time, the simplicity of it is striking.

The house has aged. I have aged. I move through many of the same asanas I practiced years ago. Some things have become easier with time, some things are lost. But there is something deeply moving about returning to the same practice, in the same space — a space that has simply been there all these years, held by my mother’s love.

The Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, composed in the early 15th century, offers some very specific advice about where yoga should be practiced:

1.13 “The yoga dwelling should have a small doorway, without holes, pits or openings; it should be neither too high nor too low ... well plastered with cow dung, spotlessly clean and free from insects and creatures.”

And then:

1.14 “Having seated in such a room and free from all anxieties, one should practice Yoga, as instructed by his or her guru (teacher).”

Though I cannot promise freedom from all anxiety, nor that there is any cow dung to be found, I love what these verses point toward: making space.

A physical place we return to. A certain time in the week. A room. A corner. A space where we can lay out our mat.

Space to move, breathe, contemplate, feel, and return to ourselves.

Perhaps that is part of what a regular yoga practice asks of us. Not necessarily an ideal room, uninterrupted time or perfect conditions, but simply the decision to make a place for practice within our life.

Practice with me

If you are looking for some support in making a regular space for yoga in your own week, I teach online group yoga classes as well as in-person classes in Copenhagen.